


The Sound of the Waves

by KaenOkami



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Beaches, Flash Fic, Gen, Gen Work, How Do I Tag, Missing Scene, Names, Ocean, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26099455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaenOkami/pseuds/KaenOkami
Summary: Namine was born of the ocean.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	The Sound of the Waves

The first thing she hears is the sound of waves breaking gently against the shore.

She squints against the bright sunlight, but doesn’t sit up or move her hand to shield her eyes. Reflexively, she knows that that’s what she ought to do. But she can’t quite move her body to act on it. Not just yet.

Besides, it’s...almost comfortable here. The sand is soft and smooth, the sky is a beautiful rich blue past the blinding white light, and the air is warm and smells clean and sweet.

She knows the names of these things and doesn’t know how. They feel deeply comforting anyway.

She could almost close her eyes (again? Or had she come into being with her eyes wide open?) and sink into sleep, blissfully, but...

The noise of shifting sand behind her head is almost imperceptibly quiet. Almost. When it stops, she can sense something behind her, feel eyes on her. She isn’t sure if she likes this intrusion, and is even less sure when the voice starts: quiet as the waves, but powerfully deep.

“Larxene. Come here.”

“Wha—”

_“Gently.”_

“All _right.”_ This voice is higher, but harsher, like the sun in her eyes. It goes straight through her head. “What’s — oh. So you found a dead kid.”

“Look at her: she isn’t dead. And not quite a child, either.”

“An empty shell, then. She doesn’t even know we’re here.”

“Oh? Can’t you hear us?”

It takes her a second to realize that the words are directed at her. With less effort than she had expected it to take, she turns around in the sand to look up. 

The man is at least three times her size. His eyes are the same shade of blue as the sky, but they look as hungry as his smile. “Good. Would you like to come home with us?”

Her fingers curl inward under the sand. She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. 

The woman next to him rolls her eyes, and she’s struck by how startlingly green they are. When she shakes her head, the upright locks of her hair swing back and forth. “It’s not a stray kitten, Marluxia. Don’t get attached, I doubt she’ll be at all useful.”

The man — Marluxia, and the woman is Larxene, she realizes, turning the sounds over in her mind — doesn’t stop smiling. “I wonder...”

He steps closer; it doesn’t take long to cross the distance between them. She freezes, eyes going wide, and can’t relax even when he kneels to get closer to her level, so close that she can smell the sweetness coming off his hair, the leather of his heavy coat. It’s not a very good mix.

“Do you know who and what you are, girl? I can already tell you’re different than us.”

She can’t even begin to imagine what he means. 

When Marluxia stands up again, he slips his arms underneath her and lifts her up too, so fast she doesn’t feel herself move. She gasps loudly, but is too surprised to do anything else, let alone try to struggle away.

Larxene snickers. “Fine, we’ll bring her back. Maybe it’ll be interesting to watch the boss name her. I don’t really remember getting our names, anyway.”

“No: _I’ll_ give her her name.”

That seems to catch Larxene off guard. She watches, fascinated, as the smirk falls from the woman’s face, how her head tilts and eyes glint with curiosity. “Weird power move, but all right. Any ideas in that empty head, kid?”

Those sharp eyes are looking at her. She ducks her head, and says nothing. Marluxia’s arm tightens around her small shoulders, but he doesn’t ask her opinion on what her name ought to be. Instead, he’s gazing out towards the water, and for a long moment, there’s nothing in the air but the sound of its steady, gentle motions.

“Namine,” he finally decides. 

She isn’t sure what she thinks of that, and the way Larxene sneers at it doesn’t help. “What kind of a name is that?”

“The perfect one for her. Namine: the sound of the waves from which she was born.” Finally he looks down at her, still with that small smile playing at his lips. “Do you agree?”

She blinks up at him, the ocean in her ears. 

“...Namine,” says Namine. 

It’s a tiny sound, almost a squeak. But Marluxia’s eyes gleam at it.

“Oh, she _speaks!”_ Larxene crows, already turning on her heel and heading back across the sand. “Fantastic. Come on, let’s go home and figure out what she can do for us, since she obviously can’t fight.”

Marluxia makes a noise of agreement, but one vague enough that Larxene turns back to look at him. She seems ready to snap something more, but something in Marluxia’s face makes her smirk again instead.

“... _Ah._ You’ve got some plans, don’t you?”

“I might.”

Green eyes glittering, Larxene raises one hand and, in the first great shock of Namine’s existence, a mass of swirling darkness rips apart the air. 

“Well, don’t leave me wondering about them for too long,” she says, and with that, she steps into it and disappears. It remains there after she’s gone, waiting for Namine and Marluxia.

“Where...where are we going?” she manages, resisting the urges to either run or cringe further into his arms. Perhaps he will protect her from this thing. But then again, his eyes are still gleaming like...she doesn’t know what, but she knows it makes her want to stay very, very still.

“Where we Nobodies belong. No need to be afraid.”

Afraid. Namine doesn’t know what it is to be afraid. She wonders if she will learn, on the other side of this dark thing, in Marluxia and Larxene’s hands.

All she knows for sure is that, when they pass into the darkness and the sound of the waves goes abruptly silent in her ears, she feels even emptier inside than she did when she was alone.


End file.
